Dispensary

A guide to medicines in Australia, published by Dotto

Dispensary · Page 5 of 6Disposal

Returning unwanted medicines

Expired or unwanted medicines can be taken back to a community pharmacy and put in a Return Unwanted Medicines (RUM) bin, at no charge, to be destroyed by high-temperature incineration. Throwing them in the household bin or flushing them down the toilet can harm the environment, and keeping them at home risks accidental poisoning.

Sort at home · take to any participating pharmacy · into the RUM bin

General informationThis page explains how the national return scheme works. It is not medical advice: whether to stop or keep a medicine is a question for a doctor or pharmacist. The scheme’s own site is returnmed.com.au, and healthdirect covers expiry dates on its out-of-date medicines page.

Read, remove, return: the scheme’s three steps

  1. 1. Read.Gather what is in the cupboards and drawers where medicines live, look at each label and its expiry date, and ask whether each one is still needed.
  2. 2. Remove.Set aside everything that is no longer wanted, put the empty packaging in the home recycling, and collect the medicines in a bag or container.
  3. 3. Return.Carry them to a local pharmacy; the pharmacist places them in a secure bin to be disposed of safely. The scheme’s FAQ points to the dispensary counter, where the pharmacist works.

Why not the bin, the toilet or the cupboard

Both healthdirect and the scheme warn against the household bin and the toilet: healthdirect calls them dangerous and harmful to the environment, and the scheme explains that medicines disposed of that way can end up in soil and water supplies.

Keeping them is a risk too. The scheme cautions that old medicines left at home can poison someone by accident or get mixed up with current ones, with children, older people and pets most at risk. healthdirect explains that medicines weaken with age and that the chemical changes can make some of them dangerous.

A return bin, drawn for this guide: one way in, through the lid. RUM bins are fitted with a one-way lid, and kept in a secure area of the pharmacy.

What goes in the bin, and what doesn’t

Can be returned

  • Prescription and over-the-counter medicines, out of date or no longer needed.
  • Vitamins, liquids and creams.
  • Herbal or complementary supplements, gels and pet medicines.

Goes elsewhere

  • Needles and syringes (“sharps”): put them in a sharps container, then take it to the proper disposal point; a pharmacist may be able to help find one.
  • Boxes and bottles: the scheme would rather have the medicines without their packaging, and the packaging can go in household recycling.
  • Foil blisters: these can be recycled at many pharmacies, separately from the RUM bin.

What happens after the bin

At the counterThe bin sits in a secure part of the pharmacy, under a pharmacist’s supervision.
When it is fullIt goes to an Environment Protection Authority accredited facility.
At the facilityThe contents are burned at high temperature; nobody sorts or inspects them first.
Never reusedNothing returned is passed on or used again.

Privacy and the label

A dispensing label carries the name of the person the medicine was dispensed for. The scheme’s FAQ compares returning medicines with handing over a script, where the pharmacist already looks after personal details; for anyone still uneasy, it suggests taking the medicines out of their labelled packs and returning the medicines alone.

Who runs it, and who pays

The RUM Project, formally the National Return and Disposal of Unwanted Medicines, is a not-for-profit company funded by the Commonwealth through the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. It was established in 1998. There is no charge to return medicines, and medicines can go to any participating pharmacy, not only the one they came from. The scheme says most community pharmacies have a RUM bin.

Expiry dates that come round sooner

Some medicines need replacing sooner than others. healthdirect gives two examples: opened eye drops go in the bin 28 days after opening even if the printed date is later, and compounded medicines usually last 28 days or less.